


You're Crazy

by LambdaClazz



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/F, Fluff (eventually), It starts heavy, Slow (ish) burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-04
Updated: 2019-02-05
Packaged: 2019-09-06 19:37:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 16,800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16839061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LambdaClazz/pseuds/LambdaClazz
Summary: I feel that because this uses an OC as a main character, I need to be a bit more upfront about what this fic is about.First of all, it is NOT a self insert. Just wanted to make that clear.I wanted to give The Doctor a true partner and not a companion that looks at her like she's an angel.For structure, I am shooting for a mix between full adventures (episodes) and fluffy chapters (traditional fanfic chapters). This is the beauty of fanfic, there's no time constraint on episode length :).Don't worry, I'll bring back the fam eventually.This is a whole lot of different, so if you don't like it, don't read it.Now onto the traditional summary:What happens when the best hacker in the universe is a time lady hidden as a human programmer and becomes the partner of the newest regeneration of The Doctor?OrYaz never invited The Doctor in for tea, so she is left alone in the TARDIS, unsure what to do. After some traveling, The Doctor ends up at a school in America where she meets Jamie, a programmer consumed by rage, who wants to abuse her computer skills to ruin the lives of the people who have tormented her for years.





	1. State of My Head

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hiya people!
> 
> This story has been taking up my head since the start of the new series, and now I just need to write it.  
> Writing isn't my best skill, so please be nice, but be constructive!
> 
> I NEED FEEDBACK
> 
> Also, I'm going to try and include songs that I think go along with the chapter. Not necessarily for a song fic, but music that I think hold the theme of the chapter.
> 
> Songs for this chapter:
> 
> \- State Of My Head -> Shinedown   
> \- Way Down We Go -> KALEO  
> \- The Wolf -> Siames
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own any of those songs. I don't own Doctor Who, that belongs to the BBC. If I did, the tenth doctor would still be running around :P

“So” The Doctor let out with a sigh. “I ‘spose this is it”. 

The Doctor avoided everyone’s gaze by turning her head to the TARDIS, absentmindedly meddling with the wood. This was the last thing The Doctor wanted, to be alone. She had honestly hoped that they would decide to stay with her. Without them, there’s no one to stop her when she’s gone too far. Without anyone else with her, she would start to see the universe as a set of rules meant to be broken and mended. As much as she had claimed traveling alone would be fine, it really wasn’t.

“Yeah. I suppose it is” Ryan answered. 

Hope was a fickle thing wasn’t it? 

“Got you back, guess we’re done” The Doctor tried. It was getting more and more difficult to hide how much emotion was going through her, especially in this new body. She desperately didn’t want to go alone. 

“Nice having you on board”. She didn’t know what to do, but the three of them had their own lives and families to get back to. Although there was one less family member thanks to The Doctor. The lot of them had been her responsibility, and she failed to get them through it all, alive. Maybe it would be best if she left them, they would at least be safe away from her.

“Thanks Doc, it’s been a blast. Truly” Graham replied, but none of it reached The Doctor as she nodded and awkwardly stepped back into the blue box. 

Normally, the old creak of the door was welcome to The Doctor’s ears, but not today. The click of the door fully closing echoed through her brain. That was it, she was now totally alone, once again victim to the vicious cycle she has gone through time and time again. 

Taking half-hearted steps to the console, the lack of sound created an echo of sound for each step. Each and everyone jabbed at her, reminding The Doctor she had this seemingly infinite beautiful machine, but not a single person to share it with. 

Now in front of the console, The Doctor placed a hand onto the clean metal. 

“Hey there ol’ girl” She let out, but her heart wasn’t in it to make up some kind of banter. 

Unsure what to do, The Doctor started to trace the outside of the console.

“How about we go somewhere nice, yeah?”

The TARDIS seemed to understand and immediately took flight, having already decided where to take her thief. The takeoff was rough to say the least, The Doctor was thrown about the console room, trying her best to stay upright. She took hold of the console and took over the controls, flying to wherever the TARDIS had planned for them. With the twist of an hourglass and the spin of the model TARDIS, and of course the handbrake, they landed at the destination. The Doctor relaxed against the console momentarily to catch her breath. Having no idea where or when they are, The Doctor stepped over to the monitors to get an analysis. Coincidentally however, the monitor seemed to be malfunctioning because when she tried to turn it on, nothing came to life. The Doctor tilted her head up toward the center crystal, shooting the TARDIS a glare. 

Regardless, there wasn’t much point in not going out now was there? Her gaze shifted down to the exit doors, almost considering just staying inside. The TARDIS however had other plans and opened the doors for her. 

The Doctor started to make her way around the console, but stopped dead in her tracks when the sound of a certain lullaby entered the TARDIS. She has heard this before a  _ long _ time ago. So much emotion hit The Doctor at once, as if a brick was thrown at her face. She remembered Clara, oh how she missed that teacher. 

“Wake up. Wake up” the Queen of Years sang. The Doctor inched her way up to the TARDIS’s threshold, almost scared of what she will find on the other side. 

“And let the cloak of life cling to your bones”. The Doctor felt a tear fall down her cheek. Had she lived too long? Seen too much? Should she have just refused regeneration? She has caused so much damage to the beautiful lives of her companions. How does she deserve to continue while they all end? 

“Live. Wake up. Wake up”. What was she supposed to do now? Just keep going? 

Agitated, The Doctor closed the doors with a slight slam. 

“Do you enjoy tormenting me” she accused the time machine with a pointed finger. 

No response. 

With that she took to the controls and took flight to go anywhere but here. 

* * *

No matter where The Doctor went, everything reminded her of someone she has caused pain to. No matter how hard she tried, the TARDIS diverted their flight to somewhere the machine wanted to take The Doctor. But out of all of the places the time machine took her, this was the kicker.

It was a beach. Just a generic, run of the mill sand covered shore.

So, here she sat on a conveniently provided chair by the ocean. Normally, she could feel the pull of motion on the tides, feel the motion of the planet, see the water push and pull back against itself. Not today. On this day, she could see the image of a certain blue suited man and a blonde standing in front of each other. She dared not let herself think back to when she was living that moment, to live it all over again.

Next to her, were 12 men all sitting in the same chair she sat in, all staring into the beach. When she turned back, the beach was littered with gravestones, some were thousands of years old, but still stood like the rest.

Both of her hearts dropped at the sight. How many deaths had she caused over the years? 

Taking a strong and deep breath, The Doctor put on whatever emotional mask she had and stood up from the lounge seat. The sound of sand crunching beneath her shoes broke the deadly silence that remained in the air. Taking in the sight one last time, it took everything she had to finally turn around and walk back to the TARDIS. 

After unlocking the door, The Doctor chanced one last glance towards the beach.

It was just sand.

* * *

“Why are you doing this? WHY?”. She wasn’t angry anymore, she was desperate. After being through hell an back of her own memories,The Doctor had given up on finding the purpose for this. Everytime she asked, as if the TARDIS could give an actual explanation, she received no reply. 

She leaned back into the doors of the TARDIS, she was emotionally and physically done. For a few moments, The Doctor closed her eyes, trying to focus on breathing and not collapsing onto the floor. She wasn’t sure how much more of this she could take. 

Suddenly, a loud blaring beep came from the console. It would seem that the monitor was fixed now. How convenient. 

Pushing off the door, The Doctor carelessly meandered to the screen. Not once during this hiatus had the TARDIS shown her where they were going. What was different now? Reading the Gallifreyan text on that covered the screen, it read… America?

“Amer-” The Doctor started, but was interrupted but the earthquake that was the TARDIS’s takeoff.


	2. The Game Is Afoot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meet Jamie, a really pissed off programmer at the moment. But we'll see how long that lasts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you read this when I first posted it, you will see that I combined the first few chapters because I think they work better together. Plus I don't like short chapters.
> 
> Also, sorry it took so long to update this, and that the only update is just a revision, but trust me this work will never be forgotten :)
> 
> In terms of a schedule, there isn't one. It'll update when it updates.
> 
> Please, PLEASE LEAVE COMMENTS. I really want to know if people are interested in this and how to improve my writing. I'm still trying to find my style, and I'll likely experiment in the future. 
> 
> Anyways, the start of this chapter mentions some gay shaming. I based it off stories I have been told by friends and from what I've heard of. I don't spend much time on it because that's not the direct point of the story. But it is their, so heads up. 
> 
> Songs for this chapter:  
> \- Things Are Gonna Get Better -> Neffex
> 
> On with the story!

It wasn’t difficult really, breaking into the school’s security was easier than stealing candy from a baby. Frankly, that would be an insult to babies. All it took was one email. One single email to infect every computer in the school’s network. From there it wasn’t difficult to get access to the school servers, of which contain all the of the student passwords, emails, and all sorts of information.

Did such an email exist? Wrong, the question to be asking is, who was it sent to?

Every morning Jamie passed the front security desk, containing one absurdly bored security guard. The desk itself displays several framed pictures of, presumably, the man’s cats. A  _ lot  _ of cats. Not to mention that whenever he walked around, he practically shed cat hair that stuck to his clothes. Thus, weird obsession plus too much time to kill meant easy fishing bait for Jamie. All she had to do was create a temporary website with a plethora of cat pictures and videos to get the man’s attention. The site itself also had a requirement to make an account, or rather an email and password. Given the man’s age and intelligence, it was unlikely he would use a different, or complex, password than any of his other accounts. So when she received the notification this morning that the security guard made an account on the site, she wasn’t surprised when she was able to log in on the school’s network, with the same password, “kittycatty”. It wasn’t a stretch to get admin privileges either. So here she sat, alone, in the dark, in her small bedroom, blasting dubstep into her ears, with the entire school’s network in her possession.

It wasn’t enough. Not by a long shot.

Everyday, the people in the school would make fun of her because she was  _ different _ . Her white hair, her pale skin, her social awkwardness, the fact that she is gay, all attributes those people picked on her for. It became so widespread, some teachers even got in on it.

One of these numerous occasions had been in her  _ favorite  _ class, history. It didn’t help that she already disliked history for its strict memorization and spit-back format, but the other teenagers were not a huge assist. The teacher called for everyone to get into groups. To which Jamie, begrudgingly, pulled her desk next to the nearest group. Just as soon as she plopped her desk down, the girl next to her wore a face of disgust aimed at Jamie. “Sorry, I already have a boyfriend” were her only words, and turned back to her friends. To which Jamie responded, “You must get a lot of exercise jumping to all these conclusions”, with as much fire and hatred as she could. Well a p e r r e n t l y, the teacher had been listening in and yelled at Jamie to go to the office.

Another time, Jamie was walking to her locker to get a textbook, only to find that her locker was slightly ajar. When she opened it, it contained more than plenty of…. revealing … images of women. If that weren’t enough, more than a handful of them fell out of the locker and onto the floor. Before she knew it, the entire hallway was laughing at what she apparently had been storing in there. Once a teacher found out, she was sent to the office… Again.

Well no more. this morning she was going to make them pay. Each and every single one of them was going to lose today. Whether it be draining their accounts, leaking private images, or straight up sending drug dealers to their homes, it didn’t matter. She wanted them to feel the embarrassment and pain that she has endured for years.

Only if the morning alarm hadn’t just gone off, then this would all be done within the hour. To be honest, Jamie hadn’t noticed that it was morning, although the fact that the guard submitted his account information should have been some kind of signal of the time.

With the alarm still blaring in the background, but utterly forgotten to the programmer, she laid back into the lumpy mattress, only to stare up at the ceiling. Would it be possible to send a swat team to that girl’s house? Jamie shrugged it off, leaving it for consideration in class later.

“Turn that off, NOW”. The irritated and annoyed command, coming from across the hall, interrupted her thoughts. That voice belonged to none other than her father. Without much care and an eye roll, Jamie turned it off, put her laptop in her bag, and was walking out of the apartment just minutes later.

It all was the same blur as any other day. Jamie waited for the bus. Jamie got on the bus. Jamie watched the trees all pass by.as the bus went down the road. Jamie got off the bus at the school. Jamie walked by Gus, the security guard. However, she did not notice the group of IT workers that walked passed her in the hallway.

Hundreds of teenagers congregated in the lobby of the school. Some laughing, some blasting mumble rap for everyone to listen to whether they want to or not. And it wouldn’t be high school without a couple making out vigorously in the corner of the room. Yep, that was gross.

Drifting through the crowd, Jamie made her way to her first class. Calculus. Now, mathematics was an absolute beautiful subject to Jamie, but when it was presented as memorizing formulas, listening to lectures, and answering questions about how the farmer could optimize his fence placement, Jamie lost interest quickly. She’d research on her own, thanks.

Without fail, Jamie sulked through the dull, black and white, blur of school lectures and barely paid a second’s worth of attention to any of it. All she could think about was what she was doing this morning. What drew her attention were the several judgmental eyes looking back at her from the front of the class. What was their problem?

“Ms. Cooper, are you here?!” The voice came from the teacher, who also wore a similar look as the student. Panicking, Jamie analyzed the room. She measured the distance to the nearest door and window. She noted the coffee stain on the cheap dress shirt the teacher wore, the imprint of a small phone in his pocket. Most likely a flip phone. With the amount of grease in his hair, it was unlikely he showered much either. So he was cheap, bad with technology, and hardly ever showered.

Across the room, one girl seemed oblivious to the situation, as her cheeks were damp with tears from reading her phone, probably a breakup. Her cheap looking lipstick and the fact her shirt left nothing to the imagination, implied she dated a lot of guys around the school, but likely got attached easily.

Pulled back into reality, Jamie heard her teacher yell at her that she had to go to the principal's office… Again. “I can’t deal with you today”, where the final words he mumbled under his breath. Hiding under the hood of her attire, Jamie stood from her desk to leave. Complaining would just make it worse. She didn’t bother looking back; she could hear the laughter from the other students as she made her exit.

It was the strangest feeling: walking through the hallways of school without any sound at all. It was eery, but more than welcome to Jamie. She took her time, putting one foot in front of the other, assessing the likely consequences of her “actions”. Although, something was different today. Jamie was overcome with a coughing fit that racked throughout her entire body. Had the school always been this dusty? Ignoring it, Jamie arrived at the principal's office a few too short minutes later.

With the amount of times she has been sent here, the two elderly ladies that worked as secretaries did not even question why she was here. Jamie let out a sigh and took a seat in the uncomfortable waiting bench. Annoyingly, as soon as she sat down, one of the ladies stated that Jamie should wait in the principal’s office. With the  _ utmost  _ of understanding, Jamie got right back up and made way to the room.

The office itself was nothing to write home about, with it being utterly dull and unrevealing of who used it. Whenever Jamie was waiting in here, she often considered if the principal even used the room at all, other than to intimidate students.

With the principal being a no show, Jamie took a seat and shrugged off her hoodie leaving her with just a plain green shirt. Jamie was confident that it was a tactic to turn up the heat in the room to make students nervous, because there was no reason to have the heat on in June.

Jamie made herself comfortable and leaned back in the chair. Comfortable was a relative term in this case, but who really cared when the only people who sat in this chair were students that did something wrong.

After minutes of dreadful silence, the next noise was the sound of an abrupt click over by the window. Snapping her head to the noise, a blonde women started to climb in through the window. However, she only managed to land ungraceful thud as they landed on the floor, but just as quickly, the woman shot up from the floor with the world’s biggest grin, though it didn’t seem to reach her eyes.

“Hello there” The blonde woman let out while moving to the principal's desk and began searching.

“Uhhhh...”. Was all Jamie could manage. Confused, she darted her eyes around the woman. Short blonde hair, average height, questionable fashion, and a British accent? Who was this? Was she stealing something? Should Jamie stop her? 

All the while, the blonde continued opening desk drawers, searching for something? No, that wouldn’t make sense. If this woman was looking for something specific, she would at least know that the Principal never goes in here, if she had done any preliminary research. Meaning that she was looking for something, but didn’t know what it was specifically, because nothing important was stored in the room. This was also supported by the fact that she had a strong, British?, accent. Understandably, not everyone has an American accent, but if she had been in the states long enough, then the accent probably wouldn’t be as prominent. Therefore, it was likely she wasn’t from around here, nor did she know what she was looking for. But that wasn’t nearly what irked her the most. 

“Why the coat?” Jamie perked up. 

The women stopped what she was doing and looked up from the desk, clearly confused by the question. 

“I love this coat” The blonde replied, slightly taken aback. 

“I just mean, it’s like 110 degrees out today.” Jamie explained. “How could you possibly be wearing a coat?”

Clearly the woman wasn’t expecting that question, as she seemed to become more and more perplexed. 

“Haven’t you got one there, on the chair?” Now with the blonde’s full attention. 

Jamie turned in her seat, completely forgetting she had a hoodie.

“I almost never take it off, doesn’t feel right without it on. I almost feel naked without the hood. Fortunately,  _ most  _ of this building is air conditioned, but you were outside and you don’t seem to have any problem with the heat” Jamie reasoned. 

Now with a bit more confidence, Jamie stood up from her seat and stepped over to the desk to take a closer look at her. Meanwhile, the blonde didn’t move from her spot on the other side of the desk. 

“In fact, ” Jamie took a closer look to confirm her suspicion, “you aren’t sweating a beat.” 

The woman met her gaze. Jamie leaned into her hand on top of the desk.. 

“Either you just don’t sweat, which admitally is likely, or that’s just another strange fact to add about you”

The woman shrugged it off and returned to her search. 

“What did you say your name was?” The blonde asked from under the desk, now interested in the underside of it. Jamie stepped back and dropped down to meet the woman on the floor. 

“I - I never did?” Jamie answered kind of, still trying to see whatever the other woman was looking at. It was just a desk, nothing special. 

Jamie was about to question further, when possibly the loudest shrieks she had ever heard burst from outside the office. Immediately, the blonde shot up and was out the door in an instant. Jamie followed her out, but was greeted with anything but what she expected. 

Now standing next to the mysterious, coat wearing blonde, there were two piles of dust where the receptionists once sat. Not only that, but there stood a creature that seemed to be a wolf-like animal made of hardened sand. The skin of it was cracked into seemingly hundreds of pieces. Somehow they all managed to stick to the wolf’s body. How that worked was beyond Jamie’s understanding. In place of ears, there were just holes on the side of its head that went, into what Jamie presumed to be, the ear canal. If Jamie was being honest, she was more intrigued than scared. Would it likely kill her? Yes that was entirely possible, but all the same it was a tremendous and unique “animal” she had never seen before. 

Jamie was brought out of her thoughts when she received a shove from the side. 

“Get back into the room, don’t let it touch you!” The woman shouted. 

Blood pumping, Jamie took only a moment to cross the threshold back into the office. Her heart was beating in her ears, but she could still make out the snarl of a wolf charging at its prey.

The mystery lady was right behind Jamie, and they both slammed the door closed just as the creature charged over. 

Jamie could feel it clawing and gnawing on the door to get in. She kept her body against the door and leaned into it to reinforce the barrier. Fortunately, the other woman did the same, increasing their chances of survival. 

The blonde produced a silver device and pointed it at the door handle. As she used it, the device glowed orange and the lock on the door turned. That must of been how she unlocked the window. This seemed to be the appropriate time to answer the question. 

“It’s Jamie by the way” Jamie yelled over the banging and growls of the creature outside.

“Nice to meet you Jamie, I’m The Doctor” The Doctor smiled, offering a hand shake, 

Jamie took her hand, questioning the title.

“That’s your name? Seriously?” Jamie yelled the question. The wolf hadn’t let up.

“Yeah” The Doctor replied, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. 

“Your parents must have done a real number on you” Jamie laughed.

Suddenly, everything went quiet. The banging and growling stopped on a dime. 

That was strange. 

The Doctor also took notice, and stepped away from the door.

“Right, you stay here, I’m going to go and see if it is clear” The Doctor stated, heading towards the window. “I’ll come back when I know more”.

“Are you kidding? I’m going with you!” Jamie stood her ground as she put her hoodie back on.

“No you’re not, it’s not safe” The Doctor ordered, almost concerned.

“You serious?” Jamie asked, quickly striding around The Doctor towards the window.

“‘The Doctor’” Jamie used her fingers as air quotes, “There’s an entirely new species of animals out in that hallway”. Now Jamie was approaching the window. “And I find that I have nothing to lose and the curiosity that I haven’t felt in years”.

Jamie crossed her arms as she leaned against the wall adjacent to the window.

“Those who simply wait for information to find them spend a lot of time sitting by the phone. Those who go out and find it themselves have something to say when it rings”

With her mind made up, Jamie put her hood up and set out on her quest of discovery.

The Doctor sprinted over after her, but by the time she was there Jamie was out the window.

* * *

Jamie landed on the ground with a soft thud; the drop was only a few feet. In all honesty, she had no idea what has taken over her in order to start seeking out the wolf creatures. Curiosity? Maybe.

Turning to her left, Jamie could see the front entrance to the school. In front of her was the main road and a parking lot for the teachers. On the right, she could see the edge of the soccer field which was on the other side of the lot. What was the point? Why were these creatures here? It could have been a mistake, because clearly those animals didn’t have any form of intelligence. Therefore, it wouldn’t make sense that they were here on their own accord. So where they after something? Temporarily assume wolf-like behavior, what are wolves good at? Hunting. Perhaps they were hunting for food? Humans perhaps? They did dissolve the old lady at the front office, which wasn’t necessarily eating. And then there was the sudden stop in attack on the other side of the door. Either they gave up, which was unlikely, or their was some form of intelligence herding the creature? Was there more than one? Every answer just brought more questions. 

Jamie set her destination to go back inside the school. It would be incredibly risky, but that was where everything is probably going to happen and she didn’t want to miss it. What has she got to lose? Not much actually. 

“Oi, where do you think you’re going?” A voice came from behind her. Jamie hadn’t heard her land.

“I want to find out what those creatures want” Jamie turned to walk backwards, still heading to the front entrance. “Aren’t you curious?” Jamie asked with a grin and glowed with excitement.

The Doctor didn’t like this one bit. First of all, this girl didn’t have a care in the world, she strived to seek out the attackers despite all danger, the snow white girl also didn’t seem to take to taking orders from her either. Thus leading to where The Doctor stood now, a few steps behind the other woman, following. 

“Can you get us back into the school? The door will be locked” Jamie asked over her shoulder, now walking up the steps to the school.

“Those creatures are still in there and you want to go back inside?” The Doctor wanted to make sure Jamie knew what she was getting into.

“Yes. Yes I do” Jamie replied firmly, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Jamie, I can’t guarantee you’ll be safe” The Doctor wore a solemn mask. She just couldn’t be responsible for another death.

Jamie once again matched up to The Doctor and met her gaze. “I never asked you to”.

Recalling her morning task, Jamie her phone out from her pocket. If The Doctor wasn’t going to let them in, then she would unlock the door herself. 

On the other hand, The Doctor was done fighting with Jamie and took out the device from before. Except, before she could aim it at the entrance, the door clicked open. The Doctor held her sonic up to her face and scrunched her face in a million different directions. That wasn’t from the sonic, was it?

From the corner of The Doctor’s eye, she could see Jamie smiling at her.

“How did you do that?” The Doctor insisted.

“How did you open the window?” Jamie countered.

The Doctor didn’t have a response. Were all of her friends this defiant? 

“That’s what I thought” Jamie laughed and skipped up the four steps to the door.

“We all of secrets,  _ The Doctor _ ”

Now at the door, Jamie twisted on a dime to once again face The Doctor as she made her way up the same steps. However, The Doctor did not wait for Jamie, and was the first to enter.

“So, are you from the future or another planet?” 

The door clicked closed behind The Doctor.

She certainly did not expect this question. 

“What?” The Doctor questioned, now facing Jamie

“Oh come on, it’s not hard to deduce. That thing you used to open the window, lock and unlock doors, is clearly either alien or not from this time.” Jamie reasoned. “Although, it’s likely that you are from the future because you’re human, although I still question the whole coat thing.”

Well, she was mostly correct.

“Blimey, you’re quick aren’t ya?” The Doctor was impressed to say the least. She can’t remember the last time someone actually figured that out on their own. 

“How does it work?” Jamie asked insistently, taking a step closer to The Doctor.

The Doctor tilted her head to the side. They really shouldn’t be having a conversation here, there were animals out preying on the school, and here they were chatting about. Although they exchanged names while getting attacked by them so it didn’t really matter at this point did it?

“Time travel” Jamie continued. 

“Honestly I’m curious. All the theory today proves it to be impossible. You  **do** travel in time don’t you?” Jamie slowly became more and more unconvinced as she continued. Was she wrong about the blonde?

“We need to find out what the Hutch want with this planet, more specifically this exact school” The Doctor gestured with unrelated hand gestures to nothing in particular, blatantly ignoring Jamie’s question.

“The Hutch? Seriously?” Jamie questioned with disbelief. 

“I’ve never actually seen one before” The Doctor stepped around Jamie, “they were more of a tale to tell kids to not go wandering off on their own on my planet. Didn’t actually think they were real”. The Doctor rambled.

_ My planet _ . Noted.

Turning around yet again, The Doctor made way down the hall. If Jamie hadn’t known any better, she would have guessed that this woman owned the school from the way she strolled around the place. 

Almost to serve as a direct contradiction, The Doctor let out an irritated groan as if someone spilt coffee on her favorite shirt.

“I hate rubbish signs. Why is it that every place I go, there’s no signs?” The Doctor questioned to no one in particular… again.

“Where did the Hutch go?”. She was getting concerned that they’d get caught in the middle of the hallway with a wolf that could probably outrun them. 

“And how did it reduce the front desk lady do dust?” Jamie questioned. 

Meanwhile, The Doctor peered around the corner and dramatically waved the sonic screwdriver around the air. 

Jamie tilted her head to the side, wondering what this lady was doing. Was it a scan? Could that tool open locks  _ and  _ scan the environment? 

With a verifying beep, the doctor read off of the device. 

“Ah! That’s what I thought!” The Doctor nearly yelled. Clearly she was a little excited to be here. Jamie couldn’t say she didn’t relate. These creatures were from another world! That would mean that other species exists. Whole other worlds! Not only that, but she was fairly certain The Doctor was some sort of time-travelling human. But why would she be here? Not only that, but she sounded as though she was from the UK. Why would she be interested in a school in the states? Was she with these “Hutch”? It does seem quite convenient that the two both showed up at the same time. More questions. No answers. 

“There’s something in this school that’s giving off some sort of energy. That’s what my ship must’ve picked up on! But what is it?” The Doctor started to wave the sonic around again. 

“So these creatures are smelling some sort of energy that lead them here? Like food?” Jamie reasoned. Was it a stretch to assume similar behavior between these creatures and wolves? 

The Doctor chose not to respond to the girl, rather she took off down the hallway. Jamie didn’t hesitate to follow. She wanted to figure out what’s going on, and Jamie was confident that sticking with this woman was how it was going to be revealed. 

Breaking into a jog, Jamie caught up with The Doctor who was in a determined and quick walk. Where was she going? 

Silence fell upon them as they walked side by side in search of anything out of the ordinary. At least, that’s what Jamie thought they were doing. What exactly should she be looking for? The Doctor seemed reluctant to answer any questions, so Jamie saved her breath. 

After aimlessly strolling through the school, The Doctor and Jamie were left clueless as to the whereabouts of the Hutch creature.

“You would think that if an outer space alien attacked a school, everyone would panic” Jamie thought out loud. “But everyone is still in class. How has no one noticed?” Jamie continued as she peered into a surprisingly empty classroom.

The Doctor was about to add onto the thought process, when a faint and low growl echoed in the hallway. 

“Doctor, I know you’re from the future or something, but your stomach is ridiculously loud. You should get that checked” Jamie joked.

The Doctor stared back at Jamie with wide eyes.

“That wasn’t me” 

“Oh, I see” Jamie clicked her tongue, “that’s not good”.

They both turned to the sudden, and much louder, growl that came from the end of the hallway behind them. Neither were surprised to find the same creature from before staring back at them, ready to stride forward at its prey. Jamie observed every detail she could, the Hutch’s teeth were made of stone, its eyes were pure red with small black pupils. On the ground below it, the carpet seemed to dry up into dust beneath its paw-like limbs. The growl now evolved into the sound of two stones being grinded together a thousand times over. 

“Right, well. That’s a good boy Hutchy” The Doctor sang in a lame attempt to calm the creature down.

“Doctor, to my left there is an empty classroom.” Jamie nudged her head to the door, “We can put a door between it and us if we’re quick”

The Doctor glanced to where Jamie mentioned. It would suffice.

“Right, good thinking there Jamie” The Doctor grinned. 

“No sudden moves” The Doctor explained in a much more serious tone, all the while inching her way towards Jamie and the classroom. Jamie mirrored The Doctor by also starting to gravitate to the door. The Hutch seemed to catch on and started to take its own steps towards the two women. While doing so, each step shriveled the carpet into dust under its feet, creating the sound of sand getting crushed against asphalt.

“When I say now, quick as you can” The Doctor stated, keeping her eyes on the wolf.

“What happened to no sudden movements?” Jamie mocked with a smile, enjoying the situation more than she probably should. 

The Doctor sent her a glare, which made Jamie chuckle because it wasn’t in the least bit threatening. However, the animal in front of them did not take to the sound well and picked up its pace. Its growling also became more prominent, if that were even possible. 

“Okay, I guess now is now” The Doctor yelled. 

The two of them darted into the classroom and slammed the door closed. The Doctor took out the sonic and dramatically moved it over the handle of the door, effectively locking it. However, Jamie did not move from her place against the door. 

Here they were, blocking the door from a sand wolf while it pushed and tackled against the door… again. 

“I just need a minute to think” The Doctor paced in front of the door. Her hands went into her short blonde hair, descending her further into madness. 

“Alright, what do we know?” The Doctor started. 

Starting with the given information, this is the first thing that has made logical sense so far today.

“A sand-wolf that really hates doors turned a lady from the front office into dust”

A particularly hard push sent Jamie off the door momentarily, but she managed to stay upright and leaned back against the door and continued, 

“And it seems to dry the moisture out of everything it touches, and it really does not like you and I” 

“Right. Very succinct summary. Well done” The Doctor was again taken aback by Jamie’s quick adaptation to the situation.

Feeling awkward about the compliment, Jamie shrinked into the door. However, she was immediately reminded about the wolf on the other side of the door. 

“Okay, reasons. Why is this thing here?” Jamie yelled.

Thinking it through, Jamie reconsidered the question.

“Scratch that, why are you here?”

Just like last time, the Hutch suddenly stopped attacking the door with no warning.

Jamie took a breath and collected her thoughts. Looking over to The Doctor, she seemed to still be working something out in her head. 

“Earlier, you mentioned that your ship picked up on energy. If it was coming from the school, then that same “energy” would have attracted the wolves” Jamie processed. 

Wait, wolves. What do wolves do? They hunt for food. They can use their sense of smell to find food.

“OH”

“I have an idea!”

Both The Doctor and Jamie, respectively, called to each other.

“Same idea?” The Doctor asked, making an odd expression by curling the side of her mouth up.

“Maybe. What I’m thinking is that ‘energy’ is like food to them, like meat is to regular wolves?” Jamie guessed.

“Precisely!” The Doctor continued to wear that energetic, toothy grin

The Doctor stepped towards Jamie, “The Hutch were said to feed off of the fundamental building blocks of the universe. Huon particles, artron energy, anything of the sort would feed them for generations” The Doctor rambled. 

“I’ve heard that they also can feed off of regenerative energy. Not their fault really, generations of mutations and introductions to highly dense, highly energetic energy made them become dependent on it. I ‘spose I shouldn’t show them my party trick then” 

None of this made any sense to Jamie. There were a lot of five dollar words in that lecture and she was broke. Then again,  _ highly energetic energy _ , seemed like something the blonde made up.

“Ah, not going to pretend I understand any of that part. I’ll just take your word for it” Jamie responded with a snap of her fingers pointed towards the walking mystery.

The Doctor was about to continue, but didn’t. Why was that?

“Jamie, don’t move” The Doctor warned.

Well that wasn’t terrifying at all. 

“Why?” she asked nervously.

Then she could hear it. The lightest and faintest sound of the movement of sand across the floor. Looking down, Jamie could see the fragments of sand start to pack through the crack underneath the door. 

“That’s the Hutch isn’t it”. It wasn’t much of a question; they both knew the answer. 

“Run!” The Doctor grabbed Jamie’s hand and they were back out the door, taking off down the hallway. 

Once they put enough distance between them and it, Jamie stopped The Doctor. 

“What are we going to do? We can’t outrun it” Jamie breathlessly asked. She didn’t get much exercise, she’s a programmer that hobbies computer games. Exercise wasn’t exactly part of her vocabulary. 

“The Hutch come from a desert planet, if we could just get enough water to weaken it, but too much would kill it, we can lead it back to my ship and I can transport it to another planet where it can live freely” The Doctor hadn’t broken much of a sweat and was thinking of all the ways to go about this.

“You know” Jamie took another deep breath, “Before we met, I thought the hallway was dustier than usual, was that mister growl over there? Also”. Another breath, “Ha! Totally called it” Jamie haphazardly pointed at The Doctor.

“You’re totally from space. Are you even human?”

“No, is that going to be a problem?” The Doctor stood tall and glared at Jamie

“No, not at all” Jamie smiled

Now, where could they get lots of water very quickly?

The Doctor and Jamie both wandered their eyes around for any hints. 

“I got it!” Jamie declared.

The Doctor certainly was not used to being the other end of this dynamic. It was unsettling to say the least. 

“I am going to need my bag”

* * *

Sitting next to the front exit Jamie typed away at her laptop, now armed with her gear and laptop, she worked through the school’s security for something entirely different from her original purpose.

“Right so, the school has an old fire alarm system that uses sprinklers” Jamie taking her turn to rant. “However, they disconnected it from the main fire alarm system a few years back, but only electrically. Physically it’s all still there and functional. With that, I can turn it on through the school’s servers” 

“I can bring my ship to the other side of this door” The Doctor added, “and we can lead it straight in, with the water temporarily weakening it so we can bring them to its home” The Doctor gave a toothy grin. It wasn’t often that she got to save a creature, rather than seeing it die.

“Can I just say, I’m really excited right now?” The Doctor entering the persona of a five year old as she went on about saving The Hutch. 

“Why is it that you want to save it?” Jamie asked from her spot on the floor. “I mean, it tried to kill us multiple times”

“It’s not their fault. Every living creature’s goal is to find energy. It just so happens that I have that energy in me, and so does the school apparently” The Doctor defended with another odd face to end it off. Jamie swore The Doctor’s face must have been elastic or something, the faces she made that day should not be possible to form.

“Right so, I’m going to bring my ship round” The Doctor called over her shoulder as she left the building. 

“Wait won’t people notice?!” Jamie yelled, but The Doctor was too far gone to hear her.

Oh well, Jamie was sure The Doctor would think of something. 

On the plus side, everything was all set up on her end to start the sprinklers. She transferred it to her phone and packed everything away into her bag. The gold medallion on the front of it shined from the reflection of the ceiling lights. 

Now all she had to do was get the Hutch to run through here and into The Doctor’s ship. Easier said than done.

* * *

It had been ten more minutes before Jamie heard the similar low growl from before. Immediately, Jamie was on her feet with her phone at the ready in her right hand. 

Slowly, the growl became louder and louder, becoming seemingly closer. Without fail, the Hutch started to form at the other end of the hallway. The sand formed a tornado around a single point as the base of the wolf’s body structure started to form. 

Jamie checked her phone again to make sure everything was all set. Satisfied, Jamie pulled her head back up to observe the Hutch, which was nearly done building itself. Jamie found it odd that she was just standing here, basically waiting to get mauled. 

But how much weirder could the day get?

The Hutch started to charge at Jamie. Who panicked and preemptively clicked the button on her phone, but nothing happened. She clicked it again. Nothing. 

The wolf was approximately half way, and Jamie was convinced that now she was going to die. For the first time she could remember, Jamie felt true human adrenaline. Fortunately, the sprinklers started to come to life and started to spray water throughout the entire hallway. Jamie wasted no time to sprint out the door. 

This wasn’t the outdoors. Where was the road? The grass? The cars?

Several crystal pillars stood around on a platform that formed into the middle of a middle pillar. They all radiated a beautiful warm orange hue. On the side, blue hexagons lined the wall that contrasted the orange from the rest of the room. In the center there was a console of sorts covered in all sorts of odd levers and buttons. 

“Hullo there!” The Doctor cheered from the other side of the console. “You alright?” 

Jamie whipped around, now just remembering the wolf that was chasing her. 

The wolf was gone. In fact, she could still see the hallway and the sprinklers, but no sand demon looking creature was there.

“Wha- Wher- Where did it go?” Jamie stuttered. Really, where could it have gone? How could she see the school hallway? She should be outside, but here she was and the Hutch wasn’t. 

“Don’t worry, the little guy is in a safe room somewhere around here” The Doctor scratched the back of her head. 

“What is this place? It’s beautiful” Jamie gazed around the room, completely amazed with the sight before her.

“This is my ship” The Doctor explained as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.

“Could ya close the door please?” The Doctor asked politely.

Jamie obliged and closed the door. 

Meanwhile, The Doctor began whizzing around the console, turning a lever here, flipping a switch there. 

“Where we going? How does this ship fly? How did no one see this? Where did you park? How in the world is that an effective control system? Do you have a crew? Have I mentioned this is absolutely magnificent?” Jamie began to wonder around the console, observing the controls, which made no sense at all. 

“Yes, yes it is. And we’re going to a planet that the Hutch can live on and drop the little guy off” The Doctor let out as she continued around the console. 

Suddenly, the whole room started to violently shake and Jamie was thrown off her feet, landing on the floor. The Doctor rushed over, “Sorry bout that, probably should have mentioned that the take off is a bit shaky” The Doctor explained apologetically, but wasn’t really apologizing. 

Jamie began to laugh hysterically, it was all ridiculous really. She was attacked by a sand wolf, met someone who is probably an alien, probably a time traveler, whose ship had about as smooth of a takeoff as a car drifting around a corner and slamming the acceleration. 

This had to be a dream right? 

All thoughts of what she intended to do this morning were replaced with this ridiculous and amazing day, and Jamie didn’t even know it.

The earthquake came to an end and The Doctor held out a hand for Jamie to take. Grateful, Jamie let The Doctor pull her up onto her feet. 

“Come on, wanna see?” The Doctor grinned

Like she had to even ask...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I wanted to make Jamie not be a companion who just stands there and marvels in The Doctor's presence. I wanted to make her an equal to The Doctor. Did it work? She is also meant to be an amateur Sherlock of sorts. Does it work?
> 
> How well did I capture The Doctor? She's a really difficult character to write because she can go from the embodiment of a 5 year old to an utter badass with the snap of a finger. It also doesn't help that I'm not British. How well did I do? How can I improve?
> 
> If you ever have ideas for a chapter let me know, and I'll credit you with the concept in the notes of the chapter if I use it!
> 
> See you all later :P


	3. Not Alone Anymore

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one took me a lot longer than I thought to write. Attempting to write a Doctor Who episode is REALLY difficult, a lot harder than I thought it would be. I'm pretty happy with how this turned out though.
> 
> LEAVE COMMENTS AND FEADBACK
> 
> Sorry, don't have any specific songs for this one.

After helping Jamie up from the floor, The Doctor ventured over to the doors of the Tardis. Meanwhile, Jamie went and grabbed her backpack off the floor and put it on her back. Spinning around, Jamie once again marveled in the beauty of the spaceship. She had to admit, The Doctor had style. But then she looked past The Doctor, who stood next to the opened doors and wore an expectant smile with her arms crossed across her chest. The sight before her was not the school. 

It was a desert. 

How did they travel that far in so little time? 

Jamie strode to the doors. 

This couldn't be right. 

It was confirmed to be a desert, but was it still Earth? Even so, the nearest desert wouldn't have been for a long ways and they didn't seem to be in flight for that long. The ship must have been amazingly fast to get there that quickly. 

"This is Earth, right?" Jamie questioned, although she suspected otherwise given that The Doctor had said she would pilot them to a planet for the wolf. 

"'Fraid not, look up at the sky." The Doctor gestured.

Jamie leaned out of the Tardis and peered upwards. Blinded by the rays of sunlight, Jamie could make out three distinct suns. 

Definitely not Earth then. 

Leaning back into the Tardis, Jamie stood shoulder to shoulder with The Doctor. She analyzed the atmosphere above them. The color of the sky was still the same, but clouds were much closer to the planet's surface, and seemingly denser. 

"Your core temperature is strikingly low." Jamie blurted. 

The Doctor gave a confused look to Jamie. 

"When you took my hand earlier, the temperature difference was easy to notice." To demonstrate, Jamie grasped The Doctor's hand. 

The two stood there for a few moments, when once again Jamie broke the silence, "Can I look at the ship from the outside?" She begged excitingly. 

The Doctor released Jamie's hand and shrugged, "Yeah, should be safe."

Just for a few moments, The Doctor promised herself. 

As exciting as this all was, she didn't want to be responsible for anything that could happen to Jamie if they went out exploring. She needed to stop being selfish and end the habit of dragging others along her adventures.

On the other hand, from her peripheral vision, The Doctor noticed the golden plate on the back of Jamie's backpack as the girl stepped out of the Tardis. A bit extravagant for a school bag, but if she had learned anything since meeting Jamie, different was this girl's middle name. Thinking of how the snow haired girl managed to deduce what most couldn't and for being naturally curious about aliens, different was only one way to put it. 

Jamie turned around in the sand to look at the ship from the outside for the first time. 

Jamie's jaw dropped to the floor.

A police phone box was definitely pretty low on the list of what Jamie thought she was going to see. 

Speechless, the programmer leaned to the left, expecting some kind of massive back end to this entrance. Yet all that was there was the blue police box. Leaning to the right told the same story. 

Straightening herself, Jamie's eyes snapped back to The Doctor. How in the hell did this work? Euclidean space was out the window, Jamie thought to herself. 

The Doctor raised her eyebrows, nodded, and smiled. The white-haired programmer took this as 'yeah, you impressed?'. Thus, Jamie was now determined to form some kind of witty comment to wipe the smug look off the blonde. 

Starting from the light on top of the ship, Jamie analyzed every bit of the exterior of the ship. She hit a stroke of luck when her sight found the last words of the sign on the door, "PULL TO OPEN". With the way the door was positioned currently, that instruction was clearly ignored. 

Jamie smirked, "You realize you're using the door wrong, right?"

She got the exact reaction she was hoping for. The Doctor's smile was wiped straight off and replaced with a look of shock. 

Now it was her turn to check off something low on her list of things she was expecting to hear. Even after so many years of traveling, humans never ceased to amaze her. 

"It says 'pull to open'." Jamie pointed to the sign.

"You pulled from the wrong side." Now pointing at The Doctor. 

The Doctor's mouth parted and let out a breath of air as she scrunched up her nose. She shook her head, unsure of how to respond to this. 

Jamie gave her another smirk before turning back towards the desert. Even though it was a desert, it was still a sight to behold. 

The desert was the last thing The Doctor was thinking about now. Turning around exposed the golden plate on Jamie's backpack. 

That wasn't a golden plate. 

Even from the doors of the Tardis, The Doctor could make out the Gallifreyan inscriptions. 

That was a fob watch. Just like the one she used to escape the family all those years ago. 

The Doctor's hearts must have skipped a beat because there was no possible way this could be true. 

The Doctor slowly planted a foot onto the sand, and pulled the door closed with one hand. 

How was this possible?

The Doctor silently placed one foot in front of the other, as if any emission of noise would scare the girl off. 

"Alright, I need to ask questions" Jamie exclaimed. The programmer began to pace towards the Tardis. 

The Doctor remained fixed to the spot she stood as she watched Jamie pace around the Tardis, as if observing a walking puzzle.

Jamie stopped in front of the Tardis doors and looked into the time machine from all different angles. 

"It can't be a teleport, that would mean you would have to be able to teleport from anywhere in the universe, and in time, to that room there." Jamie pointed into the Tardis, as she reasoned.

"Now I'm no expert on teleportation, but that doesn't seem feasible." Jamie shrugged.

"Then there's the fact I can see into the room from the outside. It's almost like a portal!" Jamie snapped her fingers. 

The Doctor remained silent, trying to analyze every bit of the girl in front of her for a rational reason for why she had a Gallifreyan fob watch. The only thing she could come up with is that she is a time Lord hidden as a human.

Suddenly, Jamie begins to make her way around to the other side of the Tardis. The Doctor followed by going around the other side of the time machine to meet Jamie on the other side. She didn't want to let the girl out of her sight. 

There eye's locked, now on the opposite side as the doors of the Tardis.

"Am I getting close?" Jamie asked.

The Doctor was about to reply, but only managed to open and close mouth several times, in combination with scrunching her nose. 

The all familiar sound of sand moving together across the ground emitted from beside them. With it, formed an entirely new figure that summoned from the ground as though raising from a coffin. The body that stood beside them possessed no independence from the ground, rather in place of legs, the sand connected from the body to the ground. Otherwise, it resembled similar qualities that of a human. Two streams of sand grew out of the body, as though growing arms. Some of the sand fell off the forming body to the ground below, but ultimately all of it streamed back up to pack together a living creature from the ground itself. As this formation was occurring, a red glow seeped through from the inside of the body. This light was quickly closed off; the process took no more than a few seconds, and with it an entire creature stood before Jamie and The Doctor.

The two women turned their heads to the creature, and then back to each other. The pair turned in opposite directions to get away, but more of them rose from the ground below them. They were trapped between a semi-circle of the sand people and the Tardis, which was facing the wrong direction to allow an escape. 

"Okay, well done. Did NOT see that coming. Really should have though." The Doctor quipped, the latter have which was more to herself in a grumble.

"Yeah, that's real sad and all, but I'm a bit more worried about the whole 'sand creatures raising from the ground thing'. Just thought you should know" Jamie countered.

An echo of sound began to form within the first sand person that formed in front of them. A moment later the vibrations resonated in the air around them, sounding as though it came from a great distance, not from a few feet in front of them. 

"This will be the greatest feast yet."

They must have been able to pick up on The Doctor and the Tardis to believe that they would be able to host a feast from them. The Doctor just hoped they couldn't sense the fob watch. Keeping it safe was the priority here. 

Jamie on the other hand, DID NOT like the sound of what that pile of sand just said. 

Without warning, the sand below them began to give under their weight. Before either woman could react, the pair, along with the Tardis, were absorbed into the ground. With that, the area where they once were appeared as though they were never there. 

~*~

A sharp cold drop of water hit her forehead. It began to travel down to the side of Jamie's nose. Her eyes snapped open, only to get hit with another drop. Attempting to wipe it off with her hand bared no fruit when something underneath her kept her hands back. Using her shoulder, she wiped the, what she assumed to be, water from her face. With her vision coming into focus, the image of rugged and sharp stone ceiling. Underneath her, she could feel a stone block digging into her lower back. Her wrists were bound by this stone as well. As a result, she was awkwardly lying on the floor on top of this rude stone block. 

After shifting around, trying to get a tad more comfortable, another drop landed on her face. Caught off guard, she began to shake her head around to get it off. 

"Jamie, you all right?" A voice worriedly echoed in the room. 

The sound of shifting came from the other side of the room, and The Doctor came into view. She knelt on both knees beside the programmer. Jamie noticed that she was without her massive coat, and she could see that The Doctor also wore braces that went over her shoulders, because of course she did. In addition, her arms also went behind her back. 

Jamie voiced that she was alright and pushed off the ground to sit up. 

"Just some water dripping from up there." Jamie gestured with her head to the ceiling above them. As if on cue, a drop hit the ground behind her where she once was. 

"Did you say water?!" A desperate voice called. Jamie hadn't noticed, but there were other people in the room. All varying in species and physical features. The one in question resembled a fish. Their blue and scaled skin was on the pale side and was beginning to crack. They had gills on the side of their neck that were becoming a shade of pink. The eyes were completely black, and far separated unlike the human eyes which are close together. However, they appeared to have legs and arms. Whether or not they were more human or more fish, Jamie could not decide. 

"Yeah, it keeps dropping from up there." Jamie once again gestured to above herself and The Doctor. 

With that, they scrambled over as best as they could; their hands were also bound. It was a messy traversal, but they eventually reached the spot where Jamie had meant. 

The pair of women didn't wait to be pushed over and made room for the desperate person to drink the water. 

Jamie, now shoulder to shoulder with The Doctor, sat against the wall. Jamie didn't hold a grudge against the man, if that was even the correct term. Given that they were in a cave on a desert planet, water must be a commodity. 

"I'm really sorry about this. I promise, I will keep you safe." The Doctor desperately voiced. 

"Are you trying to convince me, or yourself." Jamie countered quickly.

"Don't worry about it too much, I don't exactly have anywhere better to be at the moment." The snow-white programmer shrugged. 

The Doctor chose not to respond and ventured into her own thoughts. 

"What happened to your coat?" Jamie asked.

The Doctor shrugged, "Dunno, they must've picked up on the dimensional pockets. They don't give off much, but I suppose it's possible"

Dimensional pockets?

"Your coat pockets... have whole dimensions in them?" Jamie was astounded, yet fascinated. 

"Something like that. More like pockets that are bigger on the inside. Really convenient, when people don't take my coat" The Doctor grumbled. 

Jamie chuckled at The Doctor's antics. 

"Is that how your ship works? There's an entire dimension packed into the phone booth? Why is it a phone booth?" Jamie fired question after question. 

The Doctor shifted on her knees to face Jamie. 

"Who are you Jamie?" The Doctor asked without any trace of amusement or humor. 

Jamie sat up straight to match The Doctor. 

"I could ask you the same thing Doctor." Jamie countered.

"You answer a question, I'll answer a question." The Doctor raised her chin. It wasn't up for debate.

"I'll go first," The Doctor declared. "That fob watch on your backpack, where did you get it?"

Initially, Jamie was at a loss of what she meant. Then she realized The Doctor was referring to the golden decor on her backpack.

"Almost ten years ago, a nine year old stumbled up to the doors of an orphanage a golden watch being the only possession she had. I didn't have much of an education, so I had to start a few years of school below my age in order to catch up. Kids at the school used to pick on me and would try to take it. One day, my teacher suggested that he sew it into the back of my backpack with ridiculously strong fishing wire. That way no matter how hard they tried, nobody would be able to pry it out." Jamie spoke with a hint of remorse. He died of cancer a few years ago.

"Why is it important? What does it mean?" Jamie interrogated. Her patience with The Doctor's whole mystery vibe was running low. 

From somewhere else in the cave, a voice rang out, "Hey you two, could you keep it do-" 

"Shut it!" Jamie left no room for argument and turned back to The Doctor. 

"It means everything." 

Way to dodge the question, Jamie mentally rolled her eyes. 

"That's a terrible answer" Jamie was getting irritated now. 

"It's an answer, never said it was a good one. Now, have you ever opened it?" 

Jamie sighed, prepared to raise hell on the woman in front of her. But when Jamie looked into The Doctor's eyes, she saw desperation, as though she were looking at the first glimpse of light in a never ending pit of darkness. 

Perhaps it meant more to the blonde than she was letting on. Taking a leap of faith, Jamie reluctantly answered the woman's question.

"No, it can't open. It's been stuck for as long as I can remember, and I don't want to break it open." 

This seemed to satisfy The Doctor, evident when she returned to sit against the wall next to Jamie.

The programmer took another look around the cave they were held captive in. There didn't seem to be any exit, it just seemed to be a random pocket of emptiness in the middle of the ground. As for the other people in the room, they were all on the verge of passing out, lying limp against the wall. The only people that seemed to have any coherent thought were the two of them, the fish-man that was still drinking all the water that dripped through the ceiling, and the person that attempted to interrupt Jamie and The Doctor before. 

None of them seemed to have much in common, varying from a slime creature, to a fish species. The fact that they were all from somewhere different drew concern about how far of a reach their kidnappers had. 

"What's wrong with all of them?" Jamie asked The Doctor. 

The Doctor gave a grim and saddened look to the others in the prison before answering Jamie. "Dehydration. They've all been drained of any and all fluids, only left with enough to barely recover." 

There weren't words that Jamie could come up with that could describe her disgust. But why? Why drain the fluid out of different species? What did the creatures made of sand stand to gain from a source of fluid?

The Doctor had very different concerns. As much as the sight before her hurt to witness, she hoped that their captors would not take notice of the fob watch. The Tardis would practically be equivalent to a beaming star over the hidden, and relatively small, energy that was in the watch. However, they wouldn't be able to do much to the protected time machine. The fob watch on the other hand would be an easy target for the time-energy consuming beasts. 

In true Doctor fashion, she began to ramble about anything and everything as she began to search the cave for any way out. The Doctor began to talk about a planet where the planet's gravitational field caused the water to float around in the air, and even created upward waterfalls. The Doctor began to go further into detail, but lost Jamie in the process. 

Having tuned The Doctor's rambling out from her hearing, the only sound that interrupted her thoughts was the occasional slurp from the fish that was still lying below the dripping water. What was on her mind was aliens. Proper real life aliens. Admittedly it was that big of a shock to the programmer, the universe was a big place. The concept that humans were the only sign of intelligent life always seemed egocentric to Jamie. Then again, for the longest time, it was agreed that the Earth was literally the center of the universe. 

Otherwise, she pondered the possibilities that this opened up. How had other species approach the concept of life? How did they view the universe? What sort of technology had other invented? Jamie couldn't wait to find out. She would probably have to beg The Doctor to take her for something along the lines of a tour.

Jamie was torn from her thoughts when The Doctor sighed and dropped her hands to her side in annoyance. 

"I'm telling you, this place could do with a few signs." The Doctor quipped. 

Jamie chuckled at the prospect that The Doctor wanted some kind of exit sign in a cell meant to keep people imprisoned. Her aggression from earlier had long since faded. 

The Doctor smiled, happy to have lightened the atmosphere in the room even by a little bit. She made way to sit back down next to Jamie. The programmer found it amusing, and adorable in her own childish way, that the blonde couldn't sit still for more than twenty seconds and would shuffle into another position. Clearly, sitting still was not a skill that The Doctor possessed. 

Jamie began to laugh at the pure ridiculousness that was this woman beside her. 

"What's so funny?" The Doctor asked as though she had just been caught with her hand in the cookie jar. 

"You are the most ridiculous person I have ever met." Jamie laughed

"Well if I were normal, that would be right borin' wouldn't it?"

The two locked as for a moment and, for some unknown reason, the programmer found this unbearably hysterical and began to laugh uncontrollably. Evidently, The Doctor had also felt the same thing, as both women laughed until their stomachs began to hurt. 

Unfortunately, the sand creatures decided this to be the moment to reveal themselves. A section of the wall sunk into the ground, causing a strong resonation in the ground itself that could be felt by all of those in the cave. 

With no words, two of the guards stomped into the room. Unlike the previous encounter, this variation had legs to walk around outside of a sand environment. The two pulled both Jamie and The Doctor up from the ground to their feet.

"Doctor, just what exactly is going to happen to us?" Jamie voiced urgently. She was starting to get nervous.

"Not sure yet, but if my track record has anything to say about it, getting captured is the first step to finding someone's plan." The Doctor explained with a surprisingly high level of calmness. 

However, when the guard continued to pull them out of the room, The Doctor did not take to them kindly, "Oi, quit you're pullin'". Giving the creature a shove with her shoulder seemed fruitless as they were forced out the room. 

Now in some type of corridor, they were met with an additional two sand-men. The corridor itself was merely a tunnel through the stone that made up the planet. As they were shoved along, Jamie attempted to map out their path in case they needed to back track later on. However, it proved to be more of a maze with all of the twists and turns they were making. In addition to that, everything looked the same. Every corridor was just a lengthy hallway of stone that had pathways that branched off from it. The programmer saw no way to distinguish one hallway from another. Thus, she quickly lost track of where they were and how to get back to the cell that they were held captive in. 

After several minutes of walking, the group approached a four way intersection of tunnels. This had been no different from the others. Every crack, stone, and rock looked exactly the same. Except for the shadow that had run across the wall in the intersection... That had been out of the ordinary. 

As they got closer and closer to the crossroads, Jamie got a bad feeling that something was about to go down. 

The programmer chanced a look at The Doctor to her left, who seemed to have also picked up on the figures' appearance on the rock wall. Unsure of how to react, Jamie remained silent as they being to cross to the other side of the intersection. 

The sound of two pebbles rolling across the floor came from either side of the group as they reached the middle of the crossroads. The programmer's head snapped to where it had landed below the creature that held her arm. Assuming the worst, Jamie attempted to loosen the grip on her, but the guard wouldn't budge. 

She would have to improvise. Given that Jamie believed it to be a small explosive of sorts, the range would be minimal. She had to create as much distance as possible. The only way to do so had seemed to be to pick her feet off the ground in some way. 

Realizing that she had spent too much time thinking, Jamie did the first thing that came to mind and placed one of her feet onto the wall. Then, she used the grip on her arm as a pivot to pick her other leg up from the ground and effectively pull herself off the ground entirely. 

With barely a fraction of a second to spare, the explosion activated below her. Consequently, she began to feel the heat spread over her back and begin to burn her hoodie. On the plus side, the guard lost their grip on Jamie and let go of the girl. Under any other circumstance, Jamie would have been ecstatic had the guard not been supporting her weight. 

The programmer fell onto the ground, effectively knocking all the wind out of her as she landed flat onto, mainly, her upper back. It felt as though every molecule of oxygen had been ripped out of her lungs. Her ears are filled with an ever-so delightful monotone frequency that deserved a headache by itself. Barely aware of what was going on, Jamie attempted to get onto two feet. Her attempts got her nowhere, it was the grip on her upper arm that hauled her upwards that put the programmer upright. Everything went blurry through the movement, but when everything began to sharpen Jamie was met with the face of The Doctor telling her something. The programmer tried to discern what The Doctor was saying, but to no avail. It all became clear when the blonde's eyes peered past Jamie and went wide. This time Jamie had no problem making out what The Doctor had said. 

Run.

The same had as before pulled her along the hallway. Well, it was more like dragging when Jamie failed to plant one foot in front of the other. The only reason she was able to stay upright was from The Doctor's grip. If that weren't enough, Jamie did what could possibly qualify as one of the worst things to do when running. 

She looked back. 

One of the creatures had taken pursuit, while the others dealt with the carnage. A glimpse past the pursuer showed one of them leaning against the wall reforming their foot. 

The Doctor had to pull Jamie from her almost-stumble, and the programmer didn't look back again. This time, she looked forward. With newly return senses, she could see that they had been following a small group of mixed species, who clearly knew their way around the cave system. Through twists and turns, The Doctor's grip on Jamie's arm never faltered. 

Wait, when did The Doctor lose her stone cuffs?

Suddenly, the group came to a dead-stop and began to crawl into a small opening in the base of the wall. The Doctor gestured for Jamie to do the same. With the stone block still on her hands, Jamie dropped to her knees and down to the floor to shuffle through the crawl space. Awkward would be one word to describe the process. 

What she had not expected was a drop. Thus, Jamie let out a yelp when she began to fall from her crawl under the opening. 

Landing with a hard thud, Jamie rolled onto her back in an attempt to catch her breath. Yet she was met with a yelp similar to hers and a certain blonde flailing to the ground below. Except Jamie was now the ground below The Doctor's decent. 

Jamie would seem not to catch a break when The Doctor landed on her with another strong thud. 

"Agh. You jerk." Jamie breathlessly laughed. 

"Oh, sorreh." The Doctor apologized in her Yorkshire accent. The Doctor rolled off Jamie and was up on her feet in an instant. 

"You alright?" The Doctor asked while helping Jamie up from the ground. The stone cuffs made any movement difficult and awkward. 

"Oh, I'm bloody peachy mate." Jamie playfully mocked in a terrible British accent.

The Doctor chuckled, and once Jamie was on her feet, the blonde asked one of the runners in the group for the device that busted her cuffs. 

The Time Lord returned with the most ghetto looking miniature jackhammer she had ever seen. Granted, it wasn't something she saw before, but the state of it was evidence enough. 

"Oh no way." Jamie took a step away from The Doctor.

"What? This works brilliantly. Perfectly safe." The Doctor demonstrated by pushing the button to hit the air. However, instead a firework show of sparks was put on display. 

"Should be fine." The Doctor said with a signature nose scrunch. 

~*~

"These tunnels run for longer than you could possibly imagine." The man explained. 

Jamie just stared at them with wide eyes. Slime. They were literally made of slime. She was talking to a pile of slime that looked like a person. That speaks English. How was everyone speaking English? Had the language spread over time? Frankly, what time period were they in? More questions, no answers, Jamie thought. 

"Those explosions, what were they?" The Doctor asked, as if expecting an answer she would not like. Note to self, The Doctor does not like weapons, Jamie thought. 

"We make them out of some of the resources we mine from the walls. They don't really have any effect; any damage done to them will reform eventually." The slime man explained while holding up a larger version of the jackhammer that broke them out of their cuffs.

"Although as you saw, this is also great for breaking out of those dreaded binds they use." He joked. 

Now playing with her chafed wrists, Jamie stood next to The Doctor as the blonde discussed with the group of rebels. Jamie had to take off her hoodie because of the burns from before. It felt strange not having it on, as if the entire world could see her now. 

Jamie tugged on the sleeve of The Doctor's coat, "Doctor, how does everyone here speak English?"

"It's the Tardis, she translates in real time." The Doctor said proudly. 

"Okay wow, that's just awesome." Jamie mumbled under her breath.

"Also, have you noticed everyone here has an inherent amount of water?" Jamie asked. 

"I would think that every creature has some sort of water requirement, but species like fish and slime I reckon would have a naturally higher amount of water." Jamie reasoned. "Yet they all seem to not have any."

The Doctor took what Jamie said into consideration and took another glance around the table. They had been huddled around a stone table looking at a map of sorts of the tunnels. Jamie had been right; all the species here had a natural amount of water in their biology and were lacking any of the fluid. 

Most were resting against the wall in groups in conversation, likely resting. However, one stood out to Jamie with their arms crossed at their chest. They had red skin, with some sort of gills on their cheeks. Unlike the rest of the people in the room, they were not in conversation with anyone and just stood in the corner. Listening. 

This group seemed to be better off than the prisoners they originally met. However, most were still worse for wear. Much like the fish species, the slime seemed to be drained of their fluid; the green blob seemed to be shriveling in on itself. Granted, Jamie had never seen these people in a healthy state, but it was a fair guess. 

"Excuse me, if you don't mind me asking, are you all alright?" The Doctor asked in the most polite manner she could muster. 

"We survive. They take us away, but we do not remember. We return tired and drained." One of them explained. 

"Drained?" Jamie questioned, taking a step towards the table. She had a hunch what was going on and didn't like it.

"My name is Jeth and this is my brother Rick". The man directed them towards the slime creature. 

Oddly earthly names, Jamie thought.

Wait, brother? Jamie's eyes went wide in confusion. 

"He has the most distinctive markings of what was done to us." Jeth explained.

Jamie and The Doctor stepped around the round table to see what Jeth was referring to. When analyzing the slime's side, there was an obvious circular dent that shriveled and paled in comparison to the rest of his green color. 

"Doctor, this is beyond wrong." Jamie declared. She didn't know what they were going to do, but Jamie wanted to do everything to help them. Jamie turned her head to The Doctor, who wore a straight, neutral expression. 

"I couldn't agree more." The Doctor stated, immediately making her way to where they entered the hideaway. 

"Where are you going?" Jeth called. 

"I shouldn't be here; the Hutch will be able to find me and really I don't want to lead them to everyone here" The Doctor called over her shoulder. 

However, when Jamie began to follow her, the blonde turned on a dime and placed a hand on either of Jamie's shoulders.

"I need you to stay here and make sure everyone is safe." The Doctor said with sincerity. 

"Nope, I'm going with you." It hadn't been up for negotiation, as Jamie was already climbing out of the hideout. 

The Doctor exhaled a deep breath of aggravation before doing the same. Why did no one ever listen to reason? The Doctor asked herself.

Now in the corridor, Jamie began to brush off her green t-shirt.

"So, what's the plan?" Jamie asked nonchalantly. 

The Doctor chose not to respond and simply began to look in the different directions they could explore. 

Jamie took the woman's response as the exact opposite she wanted to hear. 

"There IS a plan, right?" Jamie questioned worriedly.

"Eventually" The Doctor shrugged. 

Jamie's eyes bugged out at The Doctor, and Jamie did a double take on the woman. Was she serious? 

On a far side note, Jamie thought the way The Doctor said eventually was kind of adorable in her own childish kind of way. Her Yorkshire accent left more of an 'eventulleh'.

"Do you have any idea wh-"

"All I'm saying is that these people could really do with some signs." The Doctor spoke to no one in particular. 

"Seriously! It would make things so much easier!" The Doctor claimed.

Jamie huffed in annoyance. Although, if what The Doctor said was true, it didn't matter if they were quiet; they could find the blonde anyway. 

The programmer crossed her arms at the blonde. 

"You aren't really a planning person, are you?" 

"I'm great at plans!" The Doctor claimed by outstretching her arms.

Jamie just raised her eyebrows as a response. The Doctor seemed to falter under the stare. 

"Okay, they don't always go swimmingly, BUT I am quite adaptive." The Doctor rambled with a pointed finger. 

"Uh-huh", was all Jamie had to respond. 

As if on cue, a woman began to climb out of the hideout and into the hallway. She recognized them as the person that hid in the corner of the room a few minutes ago. 

After a bit of struggle, the woman now stood with Jamie and The Doctor in the empty hallway. 

"I overheard you two and thought that you may want a guide." The woman stated with a rough voice of dehydration. However, if that had not been there, the two women would have been able to pick up on the nervous state of the red fish before them. 

Jamie sent a look of confusion, how was she meant to help them? However, the woman picked up on this and clarified. 

"My name is Azreth. I know these tunnels, and there's no way you can get through without my help."

The Doctor gleamed at Jamie with an, I told you so, look and a nod. 

"Alright, lead the way Az." The Doctor smiled. 

Azreth nodded furiously and began to walk in a direction with nervous speed. She kept her head down as if the floor was the only appropriate place to look. 

Jamie had a bad feeling about this, but followed nonetheless. 

"I had a friend that went by a similar nickname." The Doctor whispered, now walking side by side with Jamie. Azreth was several steps ahead, guiding them through twists and turns of the cave system. 

~*~

"Can you feel that?" The Doctor asked in distress. The blonde spun on the spot, looking for something. 

"No, I don't think so?" Jamie returned with as much confusion as The Doctor. 

"It's got a tangy sort of timey..." The Doctor searched for the words to express what she sensed. "... timey something. I used to have a term for this. Think I've forgotten." 

Jamie chalked it up to more of The Doctor's antics and didn't take what she said literally. The trek had gone in silence and blind trust that Azreth actually knew where they were going. For all Jamie knew, they were walking in a big circle. 

"No no, I definitely can feel something" The Doctor announced, and set off on her own path. 

"NO! no no, we can't go that way." Azreth panicked. 

The Doctor didn't listen. In fact, this only made her want to investigate further. If she had learned anything in the past years, it would be that the direction no one wanted her to go in was the direction she needed to go. 

Both Jamie and Azreth followed the blonde on her hunch. Although, one was yelling that it was the wrong direction, and that there was nothing there. Jamie remained silent, but had growing suspicious of their guide. One would say she smelled fishy. 

"It's got to be this way." The Doctor rambled to no one in particular. 

"No wait, other way." The mad woman turned around and went back in the direction they came. The Doctor stuck her finger in her mouth and stuck it out in the air, as if measuring the wind. 

Mad woman, yup. Jamie thought.

"Ah ha! That way!" 

"No!" Azreth scrambled to stop The Doctor, but to no avail. Jamie noted though, that the woman seemed truly frightened now. Just what was it that they were going to find?

"It should just be around.. Here!" The Doctor yelled. 

Jamie winced at The Doctor's volume, "Yeah, just tell them where we-"

The programmer rounded the corner to be met with yet another unexpected sight. The room was small, but well maintained. Perhaps the only cleaned room in the place. The ground was made of some kind of white, smooth marble. The walls were flat in comparison to the sharp and jagged stone elsewhere. Almost as though someone sanded down the edges to create a flat plane. 

However, the centerpiece was the main attraction. There stood a mantle with a large, almost untouched, stone block. From it, emitted a white glow one could compare to that of divinity. 

"Doc, you mind sharing with the rest of the class here?" Jamie asked, never taking her eyes off the sight before her. Had she not been in the situation she was, Jamie would have described it as beautiful. 

In the background, Azreth continued to voice her concern of their presence, but was tuned out by both women. 

"It's called a time rift." The Doctor began to explain, her hands began to speak as she paced around the block. 

"It's not so much a rift as it is a weak spot in time and space. I've seen plenty of these before, and they all can have their own side effects. Some can alter the beings around them over time. I've seen it age things too." 

The Doctor pointed to the crack on the top of the block, "This one seems to have caused the desire for time energy and accidentally let things pass through time and space."

"Should be easy enough to repair when we get back to my ship, it's pretty small." The Doctor shrugged. 

Jamie chose to roll with what The Doctor explained, "So that's how that wolf got to my school. But that doesn't really explain what's been going on here."

The Doctor gave a huff and a straight smile towards nothing in particular. 

"We need to leave!" Azreth cried, finally getting The Doctor and Jamie's attention. 

"I will show you the way to him, you must follow. Please." The woman was now begging desperately. 

Jamie wasn't convinced. 

"Can we just jump through the rift?" Jamie asked, though doubtful it would be a smart decision. 

"No, too risky. Don't know where we'll end up. Plus, the Tardis is still here, can't leave the old girl behind." The Doctor explained. 

Jamie sighed. Didn't look like they had many options then.

"After you then." Jamie bowed and held out an arm towards the exit. 

Azreth scrambled past her to show them the way. As The Doctor passed Jamie, the programmer whispered, "Do you have any idea where we're going?"

"Life's a mystery isn't it?"

"Taking that as a no then." Jamie said, now following The Doctor behind Azreth.

Jamie mentally sighed at the fact that they had to re-enter the tunnels. At least the other room was spacious and well-constructed. 

~*~

The all familiar sifting of sand broke the silence. Immediately, Jamie pushed The Doctor forward. 

"Run!" 

The Doctor caught on and picked up her pace while also dragging along Azreth, who was hesitant to move faster. The Doctor led them around the next corner, but was met by a stationary guard. The Doctor flailed her arms around and pushed them back the way they came and into another junction. No guard. They continued through the never ending maze. Some paths ended by meeting a guard or a dead end. 

"Doc, I get the slightest feeling that we're being lead somewhere." Jamie let out through her shallow breathing while running. 

"I think you would be right there Jamie."

Out of the corner of her eye, Jamie saw a similarly cut marble floor to that of the time rift room. Stopping in the middle of the intersection, Jamie double checked to make sure she was seeing what she thought she was. The hallway itself was a direct contrast with the rest of the corridors they had seen so far, having a smoothly cut floor and sand walls. 

"Doctor! This way!" Jamie yelled. There wasn't much use in keeping their volume low anymore.

The Doctor rushed back with Azreth, who stared with wide eyes and trembled in fear. 

"Oh, would you look at that. That's quite different." The Doctor said while looking about the new hallway. Neither had set foot onto the marbled floor, but Jamie realized that they don't exactly have time on their side. Thus, she quickly tapped the front of her foot on the floor, and quickly retreated it. 

The Doctor gave a look of confusion to Jamie's actions.

"Have you not seen any treasure hunt movie ever? You always test suspicious looking floors." Jamie explained, now with some confidence there wouldn't be a spike or trapdoor, or something along those lines. 

The group ventured down the hallway to the gaping entrance that was a cut out in the wall the shape of a large door. Along the way, on either side of them, were sand people that were half in the wall, and half extruded out of it. Every time the group passed a set of guards, the sand would begin to move together to form the entire creature, who would then follow from behind.

By the time Jamie, The Doctor, and Azreth made it to the end of the hallway, there were at least ten guards keeping them from a retreat in the small corridor. 

Jamie turned her head to look at their followers. 

"Doctor they're fo-"

"Best not look back Jamie" The Doctor stated. Her voice was different now. Gone was the goofball Jamie talked with in the cell. Her entire demeanor had been altered. She walked as though she owned the caves. That not one of the sand creatures could harm her even if they wanted to. The eyes of curiosity and adventure had been replaced with the eyes of a stoic.

As soon as they crossed the threshold into the next room, guards pulled the group apart individually and held Jamie by the shoulders. They were shoved along and eventually held still. Jamie was quick to analyze the room. It was very similar to that of the time rift room, except a throne stood on the far end from the entrance. Sat there was, what Jamie guessed, was an emperor of sorts. The assumption was made based of the fact they sat in the throne as if they were the smartest person in the room: their arms were spread above the head and their sitting position was wide and open. The emperor's body lacked the cracked structure most of the guards possessed, rather it was smoother and more sound of structure. On the throne itself, and around, stood several chalices made of some sort of metal. If this was the only one around drinking, then liquid must be some form of commodity, similar to that of a king getting all the food and leaving little for the peasants. 

The Doctor on the other hand made drastically different observations. The first was that the Tardis and her coat were off to the side of the big guy. Next to it was Jamie's bag, stitched with the fob watch. What was she meant to do here? Was she to prioritize the safety of the watch and whoever Jamie is, or the lives of those in the caves? She was torn between the selfish need for another of her people and helping others.

"I did everything you asked! Please, let me go home! Let me return to my family!" Azreth begged, doing her best to scramble out of the guard's grip.

"Why you little." Jamie said.

The emperor remained silent and stood from his throne to slowly venture to the Tardis. 

"This machine here will feed us for generations to come. Nothing we have ever hunted compares." 

The Doctor eyed the backpack that was dangerously close to where he stood. The closer he got, the more The Doctor was inclined to make some sort of play to distract him from it. Fortunately, it seemed they hadn't picked up on the Time Lord that was in it.

"And you will make for a grand feast for the triumph I will be remembered for. You reek of delectable cuisine" The emperor declared with small laugh, now standing in front of The Doctor. 

Taking slow and methodical steps, the emperor towered over Jamie. The programmer gulped. 

"Do you know what you smell of?" The emperor asked.

"Leave her out of this, and I guarantee you will have more food than you could ever possibly consume." The Doctor bargained. In the back of the blonde's head, she could feel something reaching out to her. 

The emperor didn't even look away from Jamie, wanting an answer from the girl. 

"Sand maybe?" Jamie guessed, unsure what was expected of her.

"Nothing!" The emperor yelled. Before his voice sounded as a mere echo, but now it was directly in front of them. 

"You will be the drink for our first feast" The emperor stated. He turned around and gave a hand signal to the rest of the guards. Instantly they moved to action and pulled Azreth and Jamie forward. From one side of the room, a stand was wheeled in from an opening that formed in the wall. The stand itself was meant to keep someone standing up, having two spokes with a leather strap on both. Meanwhile, near the Tardis, a wolf began to sniff around near Jamie's bag and The Doctor's coat. 

The blonde snapped back and forth between Jamie and the Tardis. There had to be some way out of this surely. 

"Nope! Nope! Do NOT put me in that thing!" Jamie yelled, trying to fight against the grip of the guard that pushed her forward. 

The Doctor began to panic. She never panicked. She had nothing up her sleeve, no cheap trick to pop out at the last second. 

One strap was now tied around Jamie's wrist.

"Doctor, if you got anything now's the time!" Jamie yelled. 

Right then a light bulb lit up in The Doctor's head. 

Regenerative energy. 

"Not yet." A silent, but ever-present voice bounced in the back of The Doctor's head. It sounded an awful lot like... Jamie!

The Doctor's head snapped back to The Tardis, where the watch emitted a subtle golden glow. 

The second strap now was tied around Jamie's wrist. 

Azreth was placed in front of Jamie by another soldier. The emperor plucked out a shard of stone from his arm and wordlessly held it out in front of Azreth. Azreth seemed to understand and took hold of the weapon.

"Azreth you don't need to do this!" Jamie fought against the restraints. 

"I'm sorry, but I do." Azreth's eyes stayed glued to the floor. 

Meanwhile, shadow figures began to appear above those in the room. 

"At least look me in the eyes." Jamie's voice shook. 

Azreth inched closer until she was in Jamie's personal bubble. 

Meanwhile, The Doctor began to gather up enough regenerative energy to put on a show. 

"Wait." The voice declared in the back of The Doctor's head. The blonde was getting restless about how close Azreth was getting to Jamie. Not only that, but the wolf sniffing about the Tardis was getting suspicious of the watch. 

With no warning, a series of explosions commenced behind The Doctor. She took this as the signal and let the signature gold energy flow through her veins. It wasn't going to make her regenerate, but was enough to get the attention of anybody who could detect it. 

The trick worked and every soldier was too distracted by the presence of regenerative energy to mind the rebels now storming the throne room. 

The emperor cut his losses, rather than risk injury and death, and hooked an arm around Azreth and was out through the wall of the room. Other soldiers took a similar route of escape. 

The Doctor re-absorbed the regenerative energy and sprinted over to Jamie to get them the hell out of the caves. When she got there, she realized they had been too late. 

"No no no no." The Doctor pleaded, uniting Jamie's binds. 

When she finished, the programmer collapsed into The Doctor's arms, white as a sheet. 

"No please, you can't do this." The Doctor begged once more. 

Jamie let out a groan of pain.

She was still alive, barely.

There was still a chance.

The Doctor carefully lied Jamie onto the floor and was at the Tardis in an instant. Grasping her sonic out of her coat, The Doctor used it to break the stitches that held the fob watch into the fabric of the pack. 

When they all came loose, The Doctor snatched it and rushed back to Jamie, who remained limp on the floor. 

A few voices spoke out, but were ignored by the blonde. 

The Doctor slid onto the ground on her knees to Jamie and scooped her up into her arms.

"Open the watch." The Doctor begged, now with tears threatening to release from her eyes. 

The Doctor grasped Jamie's hand and placed the watch in the programmer's grip. 

"Open the watch!" The Doctor now yelled.

The Doctor held Jamie's hand with both of hers. 

"Please." The blonde's voice was low and vulnerable now. 

Jamie, taking whatever was left in her to push her thumb down on the button atop the watch. 

As a child, she had opened the watch, but it never did anything. The clock inside didn't even operate. 

This time was different. 

A living cluster of orange energy wavered through the air to Jamie. Not even a moment later Jamie could feel fire spread through her veins. Her blackened vision now came to life with a strong gasp of breath. 

This relief barely lasted when a shot of pain hit somewhere in her stomach. Jamie doubled over in extreme pain, her vision now becoming red. 

"Doctor am I going to die?" Jamie's voice was broken and weak.

Oh, how that complicated that question would be to answer for what was about to happen.

"No, no you're not." The Doctor declared firmly, pocketing the watch.

"But this isn't going to be fun either."

Another fire emitted in her. Jamie let out a scream of pain. The Doctor took her into a bear hug, trying to offer any kind of comfort in this dreaded process. 

"I know, I know."

Suddenly, the regenerative energy began to from around Jamie's hands. It was about to start. 

The Doctor snapped her head to look behind her.

"Back away as far as you can!" She commanded, not wanting anyone to get hit in the crossfire. 

They had a few seconds before the signature fire shot out of both of Jamie's hands and head. 

It hurt like all hell, but The Doctor held Jamie as tight as she could. In that moment, The Doctor promised that this was not someone she would abandon. That pattern was going to end with Jamie Cooper.

The room around them began to tremble from the sheer force of the regeneration process. Rocks and pieces of the wall began to fall to the ground. The entire cave was about to collapse. 

The Doctor remained in the crook of Jamie's neck, not wanting to release her protective grasp, having no regard for anything around them. 

A few moments later, the fire retreated back into Jamie's body. Pulling back, The Doctor turned around and snapped her fingers at the blue box. Immediately, the Tardis doors opened. 

"Everyone in now!" The Doctor yelled. 

The Doctor did her best to pull Jamie up over her shoulder and rush her into the Tardis with the rest of the rebels.

Once inside the safety of the time machine, The Doctor carefully placed her against one of the crystal columns. 

The Doctor danced around the crowd of people to get to the controls and began the process of taking a small spatial translation.

One small thud later they were back at the cell where they were held captive. The Doctor scrambled to the doors and got some of the rebels to help pull the weak into the ship. 

Thankful that most didn't question the ship's geometry and didn't attempt the controls, The Doctor took a breath at the console. 

"Okay, where and when are you all from?"


End file.
